CES 2024 will highlight consumer AI — and the Goodyear blimp | Gary Shapiro interview

17.12.2023 - 16:49 / venturebeat.com / Ai / Will

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Last year, CES 2023 generated about 118,000 attendees and 3,200 exhibitors. It was the biggest number for the big tech trade show in Las Vegas since 2020 and it far outstripped the COVID-racked event in January 2022.

This year, the CES 2024 show is expected to be bigger with perhaps 130,000 attendees and 3,500 exhibitors expected, said Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, in an interview with GamesBeat. Exhibitor space is also expected to grow 10% to 2.4 million, up from 2.2 million for CES 2023.

And one of the drivers of the show is AI, which is expected to be infused in lots of productions and services being announced at the show. Shapiro said the CES Innovation Awards program saw a 40%-plus jump in applications for CES 2024. Among this year’s features: The Goodyear blimp will show up.

Sharpiro is always a champion for innovation and a critic of government intervention. He published an op-ed piece recently here where he worried about the fading competitive edge of the U.S. in technology. We talked about that and more.

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Here’s an edited transcript of our interview.

Gary Shapiro: We’re very excited. All the indicators and signs are pointing in a good direction. We focus CES on innovation. The pieces are coming together bigger than they ever have. We have more innovations entries by about 40%. It seems like more excitement. Incredibly strong pre-registration. A lot of numbers are up from last year. We feel great.

VentureBeat: Is that more people coming to Eureka Park, then? More startups?

Shapiro: Last year we said more than 1,000. We’re saying more than 1,000 this year as well. It’s one of those where we don’t give an accurate number until after the show. It’s one of the last ones we sign up people for, and we see who shows up. But it’s definitely more than 1,000.

VentureBeat: What was attendance last year?

Shapiro: It was 118,000 and change. This year, we don’t know until the show is until the audit comes in. But we’re projecting–our goal is 130,000. We have strong pre-registration, especially internationally, and all the categories are strong. We’re a bit away from the start of the year, which is something we’ve been waiting for for years. It gives us some breathing room. We’re away from the weekend, which we like, because we’re not competing for hotel rooms in Las Vegas with the regular weekend crowd. That traffic is important to us.

But what really counts is the people showing up with innovative products. If you look at some of our speakers,